Boulder County will ask U.S. Supreme Court to consider Rocky Mountain Christian Church case

The Boulder County Board of Commissioners voted Thursday to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on its longstanding battle with a Niwot church.

The conflict between the Rocky Mountain Christian Church and the county began in 2006 when the church asked to nearly double the size of its 128,000-square-foot campus. The commissioners denied the request, arguing that the expansion would be incompatible with the area's rural character.

In response, Rocky Mountain Christian Church sued the county, claiming the commissioners had violated the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act and the U.S. Constitution.

In 2008, after a two-week trial in U.S. District Court, a jury delivered a confusing verdict, finding both that the county had violated RLUIPA -- by treating the church on "less than equal terms" compared with secular institutions and by placing "unreasonable limitations" on its ability to expand -- and that the county did not violate the U.S. Constitution, since it did not discriminate against the church based on religion.

In 2009, using the jury verdict as a guide, U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn ruled that the church could expand the full amount that it originally requested when it filed a land-use application in 2006, which would bring the campus to 240,000 square feet.

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The commissioners appealed Blackburn's ruling, but earlier this year, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled again in favor of Rocky Mountain Christian Church, agreeing that the commissioners had violated RLUIPA.

Because the commissioners believe that they treated the church's application the same way they would treat any application for an expansion of that size in a similarly rural area, they have argued that the court's ruling on the case has set up a double standard for religious and secular institutions.

"Essentially, what we've seen out of the court to date gives us virtually no direction to any local government about how they can apply their land use code in any way other than, 'If it's coming from a religious institution, you must approve it regardless of what your codes say and regardless of what the impacts are,'" said Commissioner Will Toor. "Right now, we are faced effectively with two land use codes -- one that applies to all secular uses and one that applies to religious uses. I don't think that is tenable."

Alan Ahlgrim, lead pastor of Rocky Mountain Christian Church, said Thursday that the commissioners' decision to try to further appeal the case is a disappointment but not a surprise.

"We have a fundamental difference in our legal perspective and in our world view," he said. "And the Boulder County commissioners define the greater good in a far different way than we do."

Ahlgrim disagrees that the court's ruling creates a double standard. Instead, he said, the double standard existed before the court case.

"The jury found the county guilty of treating the church less favorably than a secular school," he said. "And in addition, the 10th Circuit Court agreed that the county had singled out the church for adverse treatment."

The county has until Oct. 15 to file a petition requesting the U.S. Supreme Court review the case. The church, or anyone who believes the Supreme Court should not take up the case, has another 30 days to file their opinion before the Supreme Court decides whether to grant a review.

Deputy County Attorney David Hughes said the county's insurance will likely cover the majority of the costs of bringing the case to the Supreme Court.

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